AboveLegit

Bynum needs to get more than 8 shots in a half..

Someone tell me why Atlanta completely abandoned the motion offense after it was working throughout the whole game?

Looks like he hit the sophomore wall (no pun intended). Honestly though, I thought he played a solid game. The stat line doesn't suggest it, he had 7 turnovers, but a lot of them came late in the game. Problem he's having right now is running Flip's halfcourt sets, although Flip has simplified it quite a bit. The thing is, he doesn't know when to use his speed to his advantage, and when to slow down to catch his breath. Losing games is clearly frustrating him, and that frustration is leading him to force the issue, which leads to TO's and bad shots. It doesn't help that his teammates aren't making their shots though, he could easily be averaging over 10apg if the team had some consistency. His jumper is still broke, it seems like his shot form fluctuates every time he goes up for a shot, there's no consistency in that regard. And he's not making shots at the rim, he gets no calls from the refs, but even then, he can't score off contact. Also, there's just too much expected of him, I think he put a lot of pressure on himself from the get go, all of the hype he generated from the summer circuit, the ads, magazine covers, etc, it's all forcing him to do more than he can handle. With Nick Young likely being gone at the end of the year, I wouldn't mind taking a look at Jeremy Lamb given that he develops more of a slashing ability (although the top priority is a big). That's my biggest issue with him, he can score in a plethora of ways, but can't get to the line.

The thing is, the Euro game was simply too basic for him. He didn't fit in, the coach didn't formulate an offense around him, and he was left in an awkward position. He needs to play in a faster tempo offense which allows him to showcase his elite court vision and quick decision making. The reason he's had so much hype is because his game fits the NBA.

Exactly, it's all Ted Leonsis has been talking about. Besides, we didn't bring Turiaf in for production (everything he does is an added bonus), we did it to bring in a veteran presence to the locker room. The growth of Seraphin, Booker, and even Singleton is more important to me. While we're on the subject of growth, I'd like to point out how good Singleton can be in this league. We got an absolute steal, he has lived up to the hype of being the best defender in the draft. He's struggled last night against Pierce, which is not much of a surprise. Pierce is tough to guard, not because of his quickness, but due to his ability to make you pay for the slightest mistake. Many times last night Pierce would come off a screen and Singleton would gamble and go for a steal, which inevitably lead to an easy Celtics bucket. There was one play where Singleton trailed Pierce on a flare screen to the middle of the paint and anticipated the pass. Wisely, Rondo held the ball, waited for Chris to make his move, and Pierce cut straight to the hoop for a layup. But overall, Singleton has been great, and looks to be a quality defender at this level. He has shown the ability to defend multiple positions, and soon enough, he will learn not to gamble for steals at this level.

Actually it means more Kevin Seraphin, looking forward to seeing more PT for him, he needs it. I really like his potential, could be a quality player in this league for a longtime.

Last night: 16pts 14rebs 5blk Tonight: 17pts 14rebs 3blk Those are Javale's statlines both games against Boston. He's been looking great lately, he's developing the hook shot in the paint, and is completely anchoring the paint. It's awesome to watch him play under control now.

YES!

Raptors need to study the Wizards and learn how to tank the right way.

I said it when it first happened, Battier was an overrated signing by the Heat. He plays well off the bench which in hindsight made this a good signing, but the problem is, he's a perimeter defender on a team with two elite defenders. They didn't need him, and won't need him moving forward.

An 82 game schedule is more competitive, therefore, a 72-10 record is more impressive.

Can't imagine Sacramento will get much value back for him, it's far too early to jump to any conclusions, but I have heard teams like the Rockets have been interested in him since he was drafted. They certainly have the pieces to get him if they still want him. Either way, this is a lose/lose for the organization. Cousins is as immature as they come, but the strategy of making this whole fiasco go public shows Westphal has lost the team. He seems desperate at this point, and the sad thing is, the Maloofs are fully behind him. They need to fire the coach, let DMC finish out the season under a new coach, and get his trade value back up if they truly want to ship him out.

When you have two isolation scorers, with no PG in a pick & roll heavy offense, how do you expect to contend?

Flip Saunders and Andray Blatche must go. This is it, I cannot take this any longer. Flip once again shows how useless he is. He's not a motivator, his offense is better suited for a veteran team with a good inside/out game like the Hawks, he doesn't properly develop the young guys, his rotations are questionable at best, and his zone defense once again proves to be [expletive]ing useless. We're in dire need of a younger coach who our players can grow with, not a guy forced into a rebuild like Saunders was. Blatche continues to show his incompetence, he got beat to every rebound, his pick and roll defense is comedy gold, and shot shot selection makes me want to throw the remote at my TV. Wall has shown nothing to me in the 4 games. He said at the beginning of the year that he was completely healthy, so he doesn't have that excuse to fall back on. He seems so frustrated out there because of the lack of quality talent around him, but that's no excuse either. He struggles finishing plays, when he gets in the lane, he gets hit, and can't score. Nevermind the referees, they refuse to call a single foul..

You can base it off four games this year, or the playoffs last year in which Westbrook displayed careless basketball and showed his talent does not mesh with Durant as well as we thought it would earlier in the season. We have witnessed his flaws as a point guard, he cannot initiate an offense like a traditional PG would. It's his 4th season in the league, yet he has not developed a good sense in where his teammates are, or their tendencies on the court. Steve Kerr said it best in the telecast last night against the Mavericks, "the honeymoon is over." There's no denying what Westbrook brings to the Thunder, he's explosive, takes the pressure off Durant on the offensive end, has shown a willingness to defend (although he's not quite there yet), and is a terrific rebounder at his position. But he still hasn't taken that final step into becoming a great PG. On the other end of the spectrum, this is a team that is currently 4-0, is coming off a western conference finals appearance, and has won 50 games in back to back seasons. Are the Thunder ready to make this monumental move at the risk of losing chemistry between teammates? OKC is a model franchise for many rebuilding teams, they have one of the youngest rosters in the league with an array of quality talent that has an unlimited amount of potential. The question remains, can this Thunder team win without a true facilitator on offense, or should it make a few moves? The elite teams in history have shown the ability to mask certain flaws of a teammate while winning, can the Thunder?

I've noticed one thing, Derrick Williams is really struggling finishing around the rim.

The impact Wallace has made on this Blazers defense is incredible.

Still firmly believe Cole was a product of the zone defense tonight though. He was impressive throughout, but he benefited a lot from Bron and Wade's reluctance to take the three which Boston was giving them. I hate to pull out the excuses here, but the refs have been cruel to the Celtics. The Knicks game and tonight against the Heat, two vital games that were decided by late game calls that shouldn't have been made. I'm not saying the Celtics would have won if the refs didn't call anything at all, because they still were missing their closer in Pierce, but regardless, it changed the outcome of the game. 69 points in one half is an embarrassment, Doc should have stuck with the zone all game rather than fluctuating between that and the man defense. KG is really falling off, but he deserves to be the starter. A major reason why Bass has played so well is because he's in a limited role now. But throughout the game, you saw Bosh going right at Garnett, he no longer fears KG.

No Pierce again tonight, which means Pavlovic will start, which means LeBron will go off for at least 35 points tonight.

We see it all the time in the NBA where coaches continue to stress the importance of defense, and how it's imperative that they force defense upon it's players. For a lack of a better example, I'll just use my first hand knowledge of the Wizards as a jumping off point. Just last offseason, GM Ernie Grunfeld extended Andray Blatche to a 5yr/35mill contract in hopes that he could establish his frontcourt of the future alongside Javale McGee. The front office still firmly believes they are the future, and that they will progress on both ends of the court. Now while this is a logical assessment of McGee, who has the potential to be a double double player in the league while being a force downlow, this is no more than wishful thinking on the part of Blatche. There's no denying what Andray can do on offense, he has tremendous footwork in the paint, is a great passer out of double teams, and can score, but his defense still remains suspect. This approach management has taken in regards to Blatche has shown no signs of progress, he still resorts to his lackadaisical defense, cannot defend the pick and roll, and plays poor help defense. My question is, can you really teach defense when a player has never shown a willingness to defend nor the potential to be a decent defender? Is defense strictly a mindset, or is it something a player can learn as he continues to play?

Welcome to OTR!

January 8th

That's just not going to work, especially if Mike Brown continues to rely on Kobe in a compressed schedule. I'll try to reserve judgement till I see how this team is ran when Bynum comes back, but its hard for me not to believe he'll resort to his old methods. And it's odd that Kobe is making bad decisions in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, this is the second straight game where on a crucial possession, he turns it over. It's not a coincidence that all of this is happening now when he's so heavily relied upon. This is why Lamar was so vital to the Lakers. He was ball dominant, which took a lot of pressure off Kobe and allowed for him to play off the ball more. Now you're faced with a team with low usage players unable to create for themselves, with the exception of Pau (who was at a disadvantage tonight by the physical play of Hayes and DMC).

Can't comment on the entire game because I only saw the 4th quarter. Kobe really took 24 shots? Just last night he had 23 FGA's, with a Usage % of 46%. This is either a result of having no Odom and Bynum, or Mike Brown's philosophy on offense. I'm leaning towards the latter simply based on what I saw of him in Cleveland.

Yup, and it's exactly the opposite of what actually occurred tonight. Honestly have never been more disappointed in this team, but maybe it's actually because I paid to go see this abysmal effort. Wall played Deron very well at the start of the game, he got to his spot quicker than Deron did, and did a great job staying in front of him. But near the end of the second quarter, Williams had Wall figured out completely. Avery Johnson ran a ton of pick and rolls, which exploited Wall's poor perimeter defense. After Deron came off the pick, Wall would take too long recovering, which put the bigs in a terrible position. This issue became so problematic that Flip decided to put Singleton on Deron and had Wall covering Marshon Brooks. There were a ton of issues with our halfcourt offense (which is expected because this team has no jump shooters). What makes me more angry is the fact that Flip Saunders, knowing the lack of shooters we have, opts to play Jordan Crawford more over Young who clearly had outplayed Jordan. It just doesn't make sense. And here's a nice post game story to worry about tomorrow: http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/837361/Picture_119_medium.png